World Cup 2018: Saudi Arabia players land safely at Rostov after plane caught fire in midair

The plane carrying the Saudi Arabian National team has landed safely
despite a terrifying incident when it caught fire during their flight to
Rostov-on-Don for the World Cup game against Uruguay on Wednesday.

The Saudi Arabian Football Federation posted a statement on Twitter saying it “would
like to reassure everyone that all the Saudi national team players are
safe, after a technical failure in one of the airplane engines that has
just landed in Rostov-on-Don airport, and now they’re heading to their
residence safely”.

The team posted photos of the players exiting the plane and smiling
on Monday night but did not release further details of the engine
problem, despite video taken from on board the plane showing flames
coming from beneath one of the wings.

A statement from the airline, Rossiya, claimed that the preliminary
cause of malfunction was a bird flying into the engine, but both were
working on landing at Rostov-on-Don. The Saudis were beaten 5-0 by
Russia in the World Cup opener in Moscow last week. They now take on
Uruguay after the South Americans edged Egypt 1-0 in their first game.